Our Churches: Stage or Altar?
It used to be common sense that genuine worship lies not on the liveliness of the singing or the entertainment value of the homily. But due to the prevalence of entertainment in today’s social media, more and more people want to bring entertainment inside the Church.
And so, churches today can either have an altar or a stage. If a church only has a stage (with a complete drum set), the liturgy becomes a live concert, with songs that stir people’s souls like a band. But in Catholic churches (and other "Eucharistic" churches as well), there is an altar: regardless of how entertaining the choir or how personable the homily may be.
Indeed, people nowadays yearn for “lively” worship where they can cry, dance, and express themselves. They aim for a purely affective worship: a stirring of their emotions. Whereas Catholic liturgy, though it can often be moving, has to penetrate all the aspects of our very selves: our senses, hearts, souls, and minds. It is not about the liveliness of the music we sing, but it is all about the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ Who gave everything out of love for us.
Our altars are not designed for entertainment, nor are they merely spaces for guidance and counseling. Rather, they remind us about Jesus, his sacrificial love on the Cross, and his plan to gather all humanity on his table of Love.
Jesus came to feed us, with Him alone being our “present manna” on His Altar. He gave us the Eucharist: the reality of His continuous outpouring of His saving love. Jesus, therefore, ought to be remembered not through a concert or a live band, but by listening to His Word together, pondering on his Word as a community, allowing its message to challenge our diverse realities (political, social, ecological, spiritual, etc.); and by breaking the Bread of Life and sharing the Cup of Salvation with one another. In the absence of loud drums, acoustics, and self-help sermons — we can only hear Jesus, telling his disciples:
“Do this in memory of me.”
Bro. Norton Decoy is currently a seminarian of the Apostolic Vicariate of Bontoc-Lagawe. He is studying theology at the Immaculate Concepcion School of Theology in Vigan, Ilocos Sur. He is a licensed professional teacher, and he taught at the Saint Louis High School in Baguio City. He is interested in theological inculturation as he engages in various apostolic works with the Kankanaey and Ifugao peoples.